The chapter presents an
example of the application of the complexity perspective to the study
of social reality. In particular, it focuses on analyzing the
relationship between young people, media and education in today’s
society. First it examines the types of assumptions that often guide
research in this field and that have contributed to a rather simplistic
approach being taken to the study of young people and the media. Then
focuses on a theoretical perspective commonly adopted in the social
sciences and how this perspective has contributed to the ongoing
application of a non-complex approach to the study of children, young
people, media and education. I point in which ways non-complex analysis
of reality can be misleading and I contrast it with the complexity point
of view. Lastly, I comment on possible ways to apply a complexity
perspective when working on media education in the schools and when
developing educational media.

Thisbookquestions thelackof young people inpolitics.The results of this qualitative researchconductedin different European countriesshows that,
although adisappointmentwithpoliticians,there
isan interest incivicand politicalissues. Internet
isa young people’s excellentvehiclefor civic and political participation, provided that there isalready apriorinterestin these issues.

From the complexity approach, the young people’s use of Internetis investigated. The datafromthis qualitative researchshows thatInternet useis fullyingrained inthe
daily lives ofyoungbut its full
potential is not used yet. The school environment
only considersInternet asa containerof information andcultural differencesin familiesmark thedigital barrierin terms ofaccess,understandingand useof information.

The articleis about the influencethatage,gender and othersocial variables have in the way that childreninterprettelevision
content. It also investigateswhat
are the children’sreal interestsintelevision andwhere
they come fromand what roletelevisionplays, along with other socializingagents, in the cognitive developmentof the child.

The articlequestions theexcessivelylinearconceptionof
realitythat identifiescause-effectconnections, which are actuallycomplex interactions. It also shows howcognitive abilityallowsthe child tointerpret, to encode and
to modifystimulus thathe or she receivesaround him or her
according to his or her needs. Thus, the meanings that are theoretically objectiveof
the schooland televisionbecomesubjective andare no longerisolatedbecausethe
childwill tendto mix them.

In this paper, we
describe the melodic characterizationof
the speechin Asturias.For this
reason, the paper is divided intothree parts, thefirst of whichis a briefcharacterization of theintonationphenomenonfrom
the acoustic, the phonological and the expressive pointsof view.The second partdescribes thedata andthe
method of analysis used in this paper.Thelast part provides a descriptionof themelodicprofileof
speakers from Asturias anditstresses
again theidea that the linguistic
researchbased onindependent
analysisof the natureof its
levelsis, by itself, insufficient.

In this paper, we
present a brief historicaloverviewof thestudiesof
intonationthat aim to showthe
notoriousand persistentambiguity
of this concept. Then, we explain thetheoretical andanalyticalmodel byCantero-Serena(2002) and expose some objectionstothis theory.In
addition, we also provide adescription
of themelodicprofile of
the speakers from Navarrefrom aspeech corpusof
spontaneous speech. The provided characterizationisthe resultof
applying the melodic analysis methodproposedby Dr Cantero-Serena inhis doctoral thesis(1995)and which waslaterimplemented by the professorDoloresFont-Rotchés.

This papertries to findthe effectiveness and the
impact thattheconceptual
toolsof the complex thoughtcan
havein our area. In line withthis objective, the exposition is
divided intofourparts: 1)definition of acomplex systemand ways of understandingthe complexity,
2) Emergency,
3) The complex thoughtrelated to the
studyofsegmentalphonetics andphonology, and 4) the impact thatthe hologrammatical principlehas on the study of intonation.

This article listsa series oftheoretical and
methodologicalchallenges that are from sciences
which study communication.The starting
pointis the Morin’scomplex
thoughtbecause,in his work,
he shows a very sharpdiagnosisof the situationof the social sciences and
enoughclues to improve this situation.

The authors of this paper present the theoretical advantages that arise
from adopting the complexity approach to the study of daily communication. They
also describe a multisystemic method of analysis to analyze the complex reality
of human language and to study the interrelation between all the elements that
compose it. Finally, they mention the principle of organizational recursion, principle
of openness of the universe and the hologramatical principle that help to
understand the complexity.

In this
paper, we propose a new starting point: the semiotics coined by Charles S. Peirce
helps clear the way for understanding the role of intonation in communication because
it considers the ‘interpreting’ element and conceives the meaning as a process,
as semiosis.

Paradigmatic revolutions of
the twentieth century demand that we reflect on our own paradigms, in view of
the great changes in other disciplines. The elements must not be represented as
if they were outside ones from the others, separated and independent, as
interdependence and integration are the basis of reality. We need a dynamic “ecologization”
and a "complexification" of thought so that we can consider the
contexts of phenomena in an integrated manner. It is unlikely that we will be
able to understand human behavior if we don’t bring the brain-mind the
forefront of our analysis, as it is this approach which perceives reality,
which is processed cognitively and emotionally and where -consciously or not- the courses of action that a person takes are
decided. A science that considers language not as an "object" but
from the perspective of the (social)complexity is much more likely to succeed
in the task of making intelligible language and communicative phenomena.

As the sociologist Norbert Elias stressed, we need new models to understand the
complex functioning of human in society. An ecological approach of complexity
could be useful to advance toward our knowledge. How can we think of a sociolinguistic
“ecosystem"? What elements do we need to put in this ecosystem and what
analogies could be applied? The (bio)ecologic inspiration is a metaphorical
exercise to proceed towards a more holistic and dynamic approach in
sociolinguistics. However, language is not a species and, therefore, we must
make our ecology complex, socio-cognitive and multidimensional. We need to
create theories and imagine ourselves weaving linguistic behavior along with
its contexts. In addition, we must maintain linguistic diversity and, in turn,
promote general human intercommunication in the planetary scale.

As figurational sociologists and sociolinguists, we need to know that we
currently find support from other fields in our efforts
to construct a sociocultural science focused on
interdependencies and processes, creating a multidimensional picture of
human
beings, one in which the brain and its mental and
emotional processes are properly recognized. The paradigmatic
revolutions
in 20th-century physics, the
contributions made by biology to our understanding of living beings, the
conceptual constructions built
around the theories of systems, self-organization
and complexity, all these implore that we reflect on social sciences
paradigms
in the light of the great changes in these other
disciplines. The application of metaphors or theoretical images of
complexity
and figurational sociology in understanding
language and socio-communication phenomena is of great use, since
language is
not an ‘object’, but a ‘complex’; it exists
simultaneously in and among different domains. ‘Languaging’ and
interaction are
co-phenomena. The former exists within the latter,
and the latter within the former. By visualizing, for instance, the
different
levels of linguistic structure not as separate
entities but rather as united and integrated within the same theoretical
frame,
by seeing their functional interdependencies, by
situating them in a greater multidimensionality that includes what for a
long time was considered ‘external’ – the
individual and his or her mind-brain, the sociocultural system, the
physical world,
etc. – and expanding in this way our classical
view, we should be able to make important, if not essential, theoretical
and
practical advances.

The recognition that many phenomena relating to life are ‘complex’ in
nature – i.e., that they are interwoven, self-organising, emergent and
processual – has prompted us to re-examine how we have conceived of
reality, both the way we have looked at it and the images we have used.
The theoretical and conceptual innovations in this vein can be grouped
under headings such as ‘complex thinking, ‘sciences of complexity’,
‘complex perspectives’, ‘complex [adaptive] systems’, and so on. In
turn, these can be brought together into a more overarching field, one
that I propose calling ‘complexics’. This transdisciplinary field would
bring together all contemporary efforts in any specific disciplines or
by any researchers specifically devoted to constructing tools,
procedures, models and concepts intended for transversal application
that are aimed at understanding and explaining the most interwoven and
dynamic phenomena of reality. The task of building, in a coordinated and
integrated manner, a new transdiscipline such ‘complexics’ requires
progress on both the theoretical and the methodological levels.
On the one hand, the more epistemological and philosophical
contributions lead us postulate the inevitability of taking into the
account the brain/mind and everything that arises bio-cognitively from
it in order to understand complex human behaviours. On the other hand,
the proposals put forward by physics and computer science move in the
opposite direction, postulating the selection of a few ‘practical’
parameters that can computationally ‘explain’ the observed facts. It
must be conceded that the practical and methodological applications of
general complexic ideas need to be developed much farther in order to
apply them to specific research. At the same time, the limits of complex
adaptive systems as computational strategies must be accepted in the
pursuit of a better understanding of the dynamic and evolutionary
processes typical of human beings.

In this chapter, it is explained how
Albert Bastardas began his academic life in the field of linguistics. He
graduated in Catalan philology, with a strong interest in sociolinguistics. He
extended his studies in linguistics and sociology at Indiana University (USA)
and he focused his doctoral thesis, which was conducted in Quebec, about the
phenomenon of social bilingualism from an “ecologic” point of view. Later, he developed
the linguistic ecology and the sociocultural complexics perspectives.

In the linguistics
field, we have often wondered what are the mechanisms and causes of the
historical evolution of linguistic behaviour and how we can intervene, if it is
necessary. In order to answer this question, we have taken a comprehensive, interconnected
and dynamic view, such as the linguistic ecology, which allows us to do a
complex, multidimensional and integrated proposal-framework for the study of
language contact. This approach can make possible the design of policies in favour
of both polyglottization and linguistic sustainability.

With the
publication of this LSC number, the intention is to give a major boost to the
advancement of the formulation and dissemination of the transdisciplinary
perspective of complexity, with special attention to their application on the sociocognitive
facts related to language. The linguistic-comunicative phenomenon is certainly
one of the most multidimensional and overlapping of reality, which makes an
appropriate application of the complexic concepts is able to advance the
understanding of many aspects hitherto unclear or poorly explained. We believe,
in fact, that the development of this approach will allow us a much greater
capacity for understanding human phenomena in general, since these are likely the
most complex of the existence and the most needed of a thought that allows the interconnected
theorizing of their internal and external co-dynamics.

Intermediate phenomena of reality present particular characteristics of
systemic self-organization, multilevel interrelations, recursivity,
emergence of new «objects» with properties different from those of the
elements that form them, and evolutionary dynamics, that probably need
the formulation of new theoretical concepts and different paradigm
principles. The sciences or perspectives of complexity, or the «complex»
thinking, try to respond adequately to this complexity of reality. This
approach adopts a multidimensional, integrated and dynamic view of
reality: the world is made up of overlapping levels of different
elements which produce new properties or new organizations at higher
levels. If we conceive what we call languages as simple and
decontextualized objects, we can understand some of the more mechanical
aspects but we will ignore their conditions of existence, functionality,
maintenance, variation, change and extinction.

One of the
dangers that we should be aware of when we study issues of language
policy and planning is the fragmentary perspective by which they can be
approached. Reality, by contrast, is interrelated and overlapping. This
is why a complexity
perspective stresses the importance of studying the contexts of
phenomena, that is to say, their external relations. The direction to be
followed here leads towards a better understanding of reality as a set
of open systems that are in continuous exchange
with the surrounding ecosystem, bearing in mind always that any
apparent stability is the result of a dynamic equilibrium. Making
headway towards an interdisciplinary approach is therefore necessary and
imperative.

Headings such as status/normative/institution vis-à-vis others such as
solidarity/normal/individual seem to imply a basic
distinction in the definition of sociocultural reality. To discover and
understand the dynamics of the interaction between these two major
categories is, in fact, one of the most important
subjects waiting to be addressed by language planning and policy
strategies and more broadly by sociolinguistics. An interrelated set of
guiding questions for the field could thus be stated as follows:
What group or organisation, in pursuit of what overall objective or
intention, wants to achieve what, where, how and when; and what do they
actually achieve, and why? With this approach, even if
how a group or organisation obtains its desired goal – that is,
its actual intervention – is included as one of the main elements in a
piece of research, the research will not focus exclusively on this
topic, but will frame the intervention and identify
how it is interrelated with all the other elements involved globally in
this phenomenon, trying to establish a clear theoretical understanding
of the entire interwoven set of events and processes.

As the sociologist Norbert Elias pointed out, there is a need of new
procedural models to get to grasp the complex functioning of
human-beings-insociety. An ecological complexity approach could be
useful to advance our knowledge. How can we think of a sociolinguistic
“ecosystem”? What elements do we need to put in such an ecosystem and
what analogies could be applied? The(bio)ecological inspiration is a
metaphorical exercise to proceed toward a more holistic approach in
dynamic sociolinguistics. However, a language is not a species and,
therefore, we need to make our complex ecology socio-cognitive and
multidimensional. We need to create theories and represent to ourselves
how language behaviour is woven together with its contexts in order to
maintain language diversity and, at the same time, foster general human
intercommunication on a planetary scale.

The paradigmatic revolutions in 20th-century demand that we reflect
on our own paradigms in the light of the great changes in the other
disciplines. The elements must not be represented as being outside those
of the others, separate and independent, since the interdependencies
and integrations are the foundation of reality. We need a dynamic
‘ecologization’ and 'complexification' of thinking, in order to
consider the contexts of phenomena in an integrated manner with the
phenomena themselves. We are unlikely to be able to understand human
behaviour if we do not bring the mind-brain into the foreground of our
analyses, as it is where reality is perceived, processed cognitively and
emotively, and where – consciously or otherwise – the courses of action
that an individual takes are decided. A science that sees language not
as an ‘object’ but from a (socio)complexity perspective has a much
greater chance of succeeding in the task of making linguistic and
communicative phenomena intelligible.

The aim of this article is to explain the
consolidation of English as a global language and the consequences that this
may entail. It also aims to clarify the confusion caused by not properly
distinguish the functions of languages, and it is required policies for the
protection and promotion of linguistic diversity. Several authors that relocate
the influence of English and minimize its effects are cited. According to this
article, therefore, the evolution of English will have different dynamics in
each language community.

Contact between culturally distinct human groups in the contemporary
‘glocal’-global and local- world is much greater than at any point in history. The challenge
we face is the identification of the most convenient ways to organise the
coexistence of different human language groups in order that we might promote
their solidarity as members of the same culturally developed biological
species.Processes of economic and political integration currently in motion
are seeing increasing numbers of people seeking to become polyglots. Thus,
English is establishing itself as the usual world supra-language, although it
coexists with other lingua francas that are widely used in certain parts of the
globe.All this communicative reorganization of the human species may very
well pose new problems and aggravate existing tensions as regards language and
identity. It would seem that these processes comprise at least four major
conceptual dimensions which must be taken into account above all else, as they
are both widespread and, left unaddressed, may lead to significant social
instability. These dimensions concern linguistic recognition, communicability,
sustainability and integration. While accepting the utility of having an inter-national language, the keystone of the system is clearly that
it must ensure the linguistic sustainability of each group. The basic
principle is likely to be functional subsidiarity, i.e., whatever can be
done by the local language should not be done by another one which is more
global. As in the quote from Paracelsus--“the dose alone makes the poison”-- contact between languages is not
‘poisonous’ per se, but when the correct dose is exceeded it can prove
harmful to the language whose position is weaker. A multilingual and
communicated humanity is possible.

In this article, we explore the
consequences of the globalization process, which forms a new sociolinguistic
situation. Specifically, this article explains the tendency of society to be
bilingual or polyglot socially and the linguistic impact caused by the
displacement of a majority language group to another area where there is
another stablished code. Of these two consequences and all derived from
globalization, public institutions are the responsible ones to deal with
linguistic needs and problems.

This article also presents the utility
of the complex and ecological perspective to solve problems arising from
language contact. Finally, we propose the principle of subsidiarity and calls
for linguistic sustainability, which international organizations must support
within an ethical framework.

This article shows howsome instrumentsandconceptual perspectivesprovided by the ecological,
chaological, holisticorcomplexparadigmscould
support to theresearchin
Linguistics andCommunication Sciencesand they may alsoconfirm,in ascientific basis, some routes which havealready been startedwithinthe discipline.Therefore,
we should start researchingthe whole
signifierin the socio-mental
framework and, from here; we should see how theyare implicitly or eco-dependent in the form and in theincludedspeakers at different levelsof the system.This approachinvolves a mainstreaminganda multidimensional
greening of the researchers’ focus.

Sociolinguistics is a still young interdisciplinary
field that has used several theoretical models of other disciplines. This
article outlines the benefits of using an ecological perspective in this field.
First, we can conceive more operational what we call "context".
Therefore, from this perspective, we can understand better the processes of linguistic
change, shift and standardization, which will allow us to promote deeper
ethical principles for linguistic diversity.

However, differences between biological ecology and linguistic
or cultural one are also exposed because, in the latter, the degree of
determinism may be lower and the processes renewal in the sociocultural framework
may be possible for the protagonists themselves.

Transdisciplinary analogies and metaphors are
potential useful tools for thinking and creativity. The exploration of
other conceptual philosophies and fields can be rewarding and can
contribute to produce new useful ideas to be applied on different
problems and parts of reality (Holland). The development of the
so-called ‘sustainability’ approach allows us to explore the possibility
of translate and adapt some of its main ideas to the organisation of
human language diversity.

Contact between culturally distinct human groups in the contemporary
‘glocal’-global and local- world is much greater than at any point in history. The challenge
we face is the identification of the most convenient ways to organise the
coexistence of different human language groups in order that we might promote
their solidarity as members of the same culturally developed biological
species.Processes of economic and political integration currently in motion
are seeing increasing numbers of people seeking to become polyglots. Thus,
English is establishing itself as the usual world supra-language, although it
coexists with other lingua francas that are widely used in certain parts of the
globe.All this communicative reorganization of the human species may very
well pose new problems and aggravate existing tensions as regards language and
identity. It would seem that these processes comprise at least four major
conceptual dimensions which must be taken into account above all else, as they
are both widespread and, left unaddressed, may lead to significant social
instability. These dimensions concern linguistic recognition, communicability,
sustainability and integration. While accepting the utility of having an inter-national language, the keystone of the system is clearly that
it must ensure the linguistic sustainability of each group. The basic
principle is likely to be functional subsidiarity, i.e., whatever can be
done by the local language should not be done by another one which is more
global. As in the quote from Paracelsus--“the dose alone makes the poison”-- contact between languages is not
‘poisonous’ per se, but when the correct dose is exceeded it can prove
harmful to the language whose position is weaker. A multilingual and
communicated humanity is possible. (See complete English version: Language and identity policies in the 'glocal' age: New processes, effects and principles or organization).

This article outlines the benefits to apply the
complex perspective to linguistic phenomena. Specifically, it supports the view
of language as a complex, rather than
as an object, in which individual’s emotional and cognitive apparatus and the
rest of the natural and social world are involved. Therefore, it is closer to
the reality that we think languages ​​are "networks" rather than
systems.

Furthermore, it is also considered
useful the image of the orchestral score in linguistics. It lets us capture the
multidimensionality. Finally, there is the justification of the benefits to
apply the point of view of the '(social)meaning linguistics' in parallel with a'
shape linguistics'.

In this essay, which was the ex aequo
IDEES award in the category of Short Essays in the edition of 2004, Albert
Bastardas applies the concept of sustainability to sociolinguistics, and helps
to create a framework for reflection on the implementation of a model of
harmonious development of languages ​​that surpasses reductionist views of
diversity.

It is a humanistic and non-instrumental
or "economics" approach of the relationship among linguistic
communities in order to reverse the expansion and domination trend that, until
now, has governed the management of linguistic diversity. This sustainable
philosophy also postulates a new moral paradigm that advocates the defence and the
structuring of social values ​​shared by the formation of a new
consciousness and a new collective ethic.

From the sociolinguistic point of view,
this means exploring a new path that allows the development of human linguistic
diversity over the expansion of large languages, and end relationships of
domination and subordination that exist in relations among different linguistic
groups.

The personal and group benefits of the
sustainability of language groups -more self-esteem and more positive
self-image group, among others- are important for the happiness of people,
since the preservation of linguistic diversity and the maintenance of
collective identities can contribute decisively to end poverty and anomie leaded
by the disruption of the traditional ecosystem of livelihood and conservation
of popular wisdom that every culture has produced.

The
'complexity' approach can be positive and very helpful for General Linguistics
theory because departs from: a) the idea that knowledge or meaning can exist
without a being who produces them, b) the fragmented and reductionist point of view
of reality, c) the 'linear' causality models, d) the tendency to dichotomise
the categories about reality, e) the 'third excluded' Aristotelian principle
(binary logic: if something is here it is not there), f) the disappearance of
the mind in some 'higher' social sciences, g) an inadequate approach of the
relationships between the whole and its parts, and, h) a perspective on
creativity too much based on logic and not on 'artistic' intuition and
imagination in science.

In this article, the consequences of globalization in
language are considered. In more detailed terms, there is an explanation of how
the economy transnationalization causes the need to learn new languages and how
innovations in communication technologies bring speakers of different languages
closer expanding the areas of human interrelation. These facts lead to an
increase in bilingualism or functional polyglottization, processes that can
cause feelings of cultural threat and defensive reactions by some group of
speakers.

Given the characteristics of this new historical
phase, this article outlines the advantages of the linguistic contact management
from the 'complexity' and justifies the need to give new answers in terms of
the organization of language policies that ensure general maintenance of
linguistic diversity from the global linguistic peace and equity.

This is the book that
was awarded with the prize of the Catalan Encyclopedia, 1996. It is an
extensive theorizing about the phenomena related to diversity and language
contact from the perspective of sociocognitive and ecological complexity.

In this context, this
paper aims, on one hand, to progress in the global and integrated understanding
of the processes of linguistic contact and, on the other hand, encourage and
put forward the foundations and theoretical integration from an
interdisciplinary and eclectic approach that can also be a contribution towards
a unified and common sociolinguistic paradigm. The strategy to build it will
not be a pure fusion of the contributions from different lines but a more global
approach that, incardinated with other scientific disciplines more contemporaneously
innovative, that enables the harmonious integration of the different sociolinguistic
approaches in a deep, wide and uniform approach that leads to the closest
approach to reality.

The materials for this
unified approach have been extracted from everywhere that has something
interesting and relevant. Theoretical physics, ecology, philosophy of science
and mind, anthropology, phenomenological and procedural sociology, cognitive
sciences, political science, pragmatics, the history, theory of systems,
approaches to the complexity and, obviously, sociolinguistics itself dialogue and overlap in
this integration effort.

More specifically, the
first section of the book briefly develops a set of ideas and principles around
the provisional nature principles of scientific knowledge and approach to the
ecosystem and context. The basic assertion would be that, in order to
understand the functioning of a given phenomenon, we have to see its
connections with its environments of existence, given the interdependence of
the elements of reality. Therefore, two are the basic settings of the
communication systems of human language, i.e. the linguistic varieties: the
brain / mind, on one hand, and socio-cultural order, on the other. Then, the
aim of the work will be exploring some of the relationships between linguistic
varieties and these two contexts, trying to contribute to the understanding of
the macrodynamics phenomena of language contact. Another tested principle has
been the one that considers that the different orders and phenomena of reality constitute
an interrelated whole, so that there are not only circular interfluencies
between two variables but a set of dynamic interactions that create reality in
an overlapped way. Therefore, the phenomena that are mental, interactional,
collective, political and linguistic, among others, occur simultaneously and
are interweaved so that one is the other and vice versa. To realize the image, the
metaphor of music is used as it allows us to visualize different planes of the
same single phenomenon and, at the same time, it exists in its sequentiality, i.e.
in time.

Then, the
focus is on large dynamic processes in which the most common phenomena of
language contact occur: the policy regulation of standardization of linguistic
communication and migration.

In the last
chapter, the Catalan case is studied holistically. However, the different
language contact processes that occur in a intertwined and interrelated way are
distinguished: the standardization and widespread use of the local code, the
informal and formal bilingualization of the L1 Catalan and L1 Spanish
population, each one becomes bilingual learning the language of the other, and
the development of intergroup relations, which can lead to cases of language
shift in any of these two populations.

This studyinvestigates how,
in the current global sociolinguistic situationof a general useofEnglish
as thelingua franca,
the language coexistswith other
languages ​​(eg Spanish) in the context of Catalonia,a medium-sized language community.Specifically,
thisstudy is focused on the language
usein theParc Científic of Barcelona.

Thispapersummarizessomeof the
main resultson the changes inlinguistic
practiceamong teenagersfrom
Mataró (Catalonia) fromthe data
provided by the project called RESOL, whose dataarelongitudinal because it collectsinformation frompupils when they were in the 6th courseofprimary school anda yearlater,at the end of1st
ESO (secondary school). The basisof this analysis isa diachronic comparisonof some indicators of the interpersonallanguage use, the language choicein the media, in the consumptionand the declared competences inCatalan and
Spanish.

The aimof this paperis to identify themost important changesthat occur inlinguistic behaviorand cultural practicesof studentswhen they finishprimary schooland start to study in the high school.Theanalysis isbased ona comparisonof diachronicindicatorsregardingthe
useof Catalan and Spanish, as well as the language useduring spare timeandhabits of cultural consumption.

The articlepresents information about the relationship between thelanguage used bythe adolescent populationfrom Mataró and the Ponent Strip with their
parents andtheir linguistic identity. In particular, it studies how differentsociolinguistic variablesaffect theirrelationship in orderto create twolinguisticsubgroups: a group with amonolingualSpanish-speakingfamily environment that is identified
withthat language andanother
group that, although it is also involved ina monolingual family environment, shows
bilingualidentification.

In
thispaper,
it is reported athe firstdata
mining onlanguage use inthe new
technologies ofinformation andcommunication
technologies (ICT) of the Statisticsonlanguage use insmall
and medium enterprisesof Catalonia (EULPILMES-06)
producedby the Secretary for Linguistic
Policy,with the support fromthe
Statistical Instituteof Catalonia.Through thisstudy,weevaluate the language use insmall and mediumenterprises (SMEs)in the service sectorin Catalonia.

The wordis a toolto
change theworld.It providesa tool forsocial cooperationand for domination too.The common element to botheffects, thepowerand the
understanding, is the persuasive abilityofcommunication. The sourceof this knowledge, with the invention of
rhetoric, is one of theoldest.This bookdiscussesthe artof convincing, that is to say therhetoric.After aninterestinghistorical perspective,
the author usesreasons andsituationsof the political use of thediscourse.

In this paper, a newstarting point is
proposed:theCharles S.Peirce’s semioticshelpsclear the wayfor understandingtherole ofintonationin communication because itisconsideredasthe ‘interpreting’
element and conceives the meaning as aprocess, assemiosis.

In this paper we aim to highlight the interest of the prospect CAS
(language considered as a Complex Adaptive System) for research on
language and in particular for the research on linguistic variation. We
talk about evolution of language, understood as the cognitive processes
that give rise to cultural and linguistic change.

The CAS approach considers language as an emergent phenomenon, "the
result of activity, collective and cumulative behavior of linguistic
agents over time" (Frank and Gontier 2013:39).

The author justifies the title of this chapter by offering a general
approach to the perspective of complexity and introducing the wide range
of language used in connection with complexity. There is an
introduction to terminology as redefined within the framework of
complexity because we think that agreement on the terminology of the
main concepts will provide a basis ofcommon language for all the
chapters of this book. The objective of the chapter is to promote
progress in the formulation and dissemination of transdisciplinary
knowledge from the perspective of complexity, with special regard to its
application in the field of language, the tool used to convey both
thought and method. For this to happen, it is necessary to rethink
science, including the human sciences, by means of an approach that
cross-cuts disciplines and takes into account all those aspects which
will allow us to find a shared language. This is because human phenomena
require a way of thinking that is able to account for the interrelated
and systematic nature of its internal and external dynamics. The
development of a complex perspective will drive us toward a deeper
understanding of human phenomena in general since they may well be the
most complex in existence. This chapter also aims to set out guidelines
for developing a vision of linguistics guided by the perspective of
complexity.

Considering the new proposals of what we understand nowadays as “the
knowledge society”, the conventional concepts of taxonomy, non-flexible
frames and closed systems of categorization applied to scientific
proceedings, seems to be more a blocking artifices than useful
operational tools. As a result of that, a crucial aspect to note is that
one of the weaker points with regards to a cognitive issue is the lack
of interaction of individuals with their own environment. From the
structural analysis applied in different fields it can be observed that
the asynchrony and some distortions between the data input mind
processing and their interpretation are more due to communication
competence and a definition of meaning, than to any technology involved.
Thus, the concept of ecosystem, considering ourselves as a part of it,
is just the starting point from the perspective of cognitive sciences.
That means that the criteria of opposition as a categorial system, as
well as the consideration of any static frame or model, are far to be a a
suitable way for a complexity issue.